How 'Into the Badlands' pulls off its incredible martial arts fighting scenes

Having retired from martial arts movies, Daniel Wu took six months to train for AMC's "Into the Badlands."AMC

The stars of AMC's "Into the Badlands" look like martial arts professionals on TV, which took some intense work making use of their unique strengths and a team of actual pros.

"That was a big challenge. These actors had no martial arts experience and we had to make them look badass," star and executive producer Daniel Wu, who's a veteran of martial arts movies, told Business Insider.

On "Into the Badlands," the highest-rated series debut of the fall, Wu plays Sunny, a warrior who meets a young boy named M.K. (Aramis Knight). They must travel across the Badlands controlled by seven barons in a post-apocalyptic America.

"We knew we had to have strong actors," Wu said. "We couldn’t have great martial artists and crappy actors, because that would just ruin the plotline. And so the priority was getting the good actors first and then making them look good onscreen."

First the producers brought on martial arts choreographer Master Dee Dee Ku. His packed resume includes working with Keanu Reeves for "The Matrix," Uma Thurman for "Kill Bill," and Zhang Ziyi for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

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AMC

Master Dee Dee had the actors attend a six-week intensive training camp. For about six hours a day, they worked on basic kung fu, weapons, choreography, and working with wires.

"He would send them through these phases on a daily basis and then pick and choose what was great or what they were naturally good at, and then use that for their ability," Wu explained.

As "Into the Badlands" heads into its first season finale, here's how the creators worked with the cast to nail those moves:

The Widow (Emily Beecham)

AMC

"Emily has a very graceful way of moving, and so he decided to make that her style," Wu said of Emily Beecham, who plays the Widow. "The way she slips and ducks and dives around attacks, as well as attacking in a crazy, very violent, but beautiful way, was all based on qualities [Master Dee Dee] saw in her while we were doing the training."

Wu also explained why the Widow uses weapons in both hands:

"Double-weapons traditionally in Chinese martial arts, especially daggers and swords and that stuff, have a very strong feminine quality to it, and she has a very strong feminine quality to her," he said. "Her weapons are a little more dainty, a little more elegant than Sunny’s more brutal sword, but the way she masters them or the way she uses them is a little more intricate. Instead of using brute force, she’s like a snake. Her weapons match that."

M.K. (Aramis Knight)

AMC

"He’s a really good athlete for a 15-year-old kid," Wu said of Aramis Knight, who plays M.K.

At this point in the show, M.K. is still early in his training. As Sunny's colt, he trains under the seasoned warrior. But he holds a mighty power inside him that's unleashed when he bleeds, and which makes him an important weapon for anyone who controls him.

"I think Aramis is a mine that we can pull from," Wu said. "And so he was really good at doing flips and twists and all the wire work stuff. And so that’s why when you see the dark chi stuff, the dark energy stuff, that happens with him, we use those kinds of moves."

Tilda (Ally Ioannides)

AMC

Ally Ioannides seems perfectly cast as the Widow's daughter, Tilda. Although she's young, her mother would've started training her in martial arts at a very young age. Tilda is fast, quiet, and a pro with ninja stars.

“Emily is very good with daggers, I’m very good at hand-to-hand combat, and Ally is very good all around," Aramis Knight told io9.

Of course, because of the magic of Hollywood, the cast's natural talent gets some help from the crew.

"There are also very skillful doubles," Wu said. "They definitely have people that fight for them at certain points, especially the dangerous stuff, and so the integration of all that really has to do with Master Dee Dee’s skill and experience."